


use your black boots for a chassé!

by albatroce (MakeWayForAgony)



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Ballet dancer vernon, Eventual Romance, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Slow Burn, Vernon Centered, first work help, friends to lovers with obstacles in between, friendship fluff, god is this slowburn?, he was a punk and he did ballet what more can i say, it's not as depressing as it sounds i promise, mostly vernon centered, napoleon bonaparte deserves worship, oh also wonwoo has a crush on vernon from the beginning yeah he's real cool about it, oh the cats, punk wonwoo, researching music for this is a blast, seokmin somehow paves the way for all of vernons relationships, seungkwan and vernon get into a relationship but it doesn't last long, seventeen in college, so kiiinda college au, the obstacle being boo seungkwan, the title relates to wonwoo not getting his shit together, there's a lot of ballet references btw, this is literally the plot, vernon and wonwoo love cats, wonwoo will get some thoughts dw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:27:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28618767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MakeWayForAgony/pseuds/albatroce
Summary: Vernon finds kittens in a box and takes them home. Sadly, his roommate Seokmin is WAY too allergic to stand three little cats in a two-bedroom apartment, so Vernon asks his re-found friend to take them in. Wonwoo is more than happy to get an excuse to spend time with this silent crush of his.
Relationships: Boo Seungkwan/Chwe Hansol | Vernon, Chwe Hansol | Vernon/Jeon Wonwoo
Comments: 24
Kudos: 28





	1. Satie With A Taste Of Dinosaur Jr.

“Plié… Cou de pied… Arabesque…“

Vernon breathes in. And out. There is a feather stuck in his leggings, right above his calf, but he remains completely immobile, holding the position perfectly, his other leg stretched back in an elegant curve. Only his breathing lifts his shoulders rhythmically, waiting for the instructions to pick up again.

“Envelopé into third… Révérance… Yerim, the male one for you, stay in your role for the whole training… Aaaand…“

The music comes to a torrentious end.

“You’re done, _voilà_.“

“Thank you, Jeonghan,“ says Madame Seo with a smile and claps her hands together once. “Good work today, I hope to keep this energy up next week. Now go home and enjoy Chuseok with your families.“

The studio is filled with the bustling noises of bodies straightening themselves, polite, but not less sincere “thank you“s, and the rumbling of the second barre being pushed against the wall. Vernon finally picks that feather out of the fabric around his legs and blows it into Jeonghan’s dark hair when he conveniently passes by. The assistant trainer, albeit working in a serious establishment, is wearing a shirt that brightly proclaims “Chopin was gay for a reason“. Vernon can only guess what said reason might be.

“Nice music choice,“ he tells his senior. “Not often you get an arrangement to this Satie, but I liked the pace you set.“

Jeonghan gives his signature cocky grin, which doesn’t conceal his genuine pride, and shoots a glance at their instructor. “Gotta get creative to impress the lady of the house,“ he replies, “Plus, it was a really hot tip. Challenged myself, thanks, Vernon.“

The younger nods at that. Always nice to get a compliment from a sunbae, even more so when it’s an honest acknowledgement of what feels like a real accomplishment. Vernon had helped his elder out with pleasure. Satie is now what accompanies him off the parquet, into the locker rooms where he swaps slippers and tights for sweatpants, a woollen coat and a scarf, and out into the autumn drizzle. The Première Gymnopédie, contrasting Jeonghan’s earlier choice of the rather turbulent Troisième morceau en forme de poire (Brutal - that’s actually part of the piece’s name), raises Vernon’s eyes against gloomy facades and the gleam of cars’ headlights on wet streets - but not in melancholy.

*

Vernon takes his earbuds out when he stops his bike in front of the Jungs’ Record Store. As shit as the weather is, he is glad that he took his bike to training today, because the pedalling at least kept his muscles warm against the chilly wind and distracted them from already aching from the training. Sure, he could have taken the bus like he usually does, but he only plans to pick up some orders he has already paid for, give the Jungs his best wishes for the holidays, and then head home to start his post-training routine as soon as humanly possible. Joshua’s mother gave him some really nice bath salts the other day, and since this has been the last training session before Chuseok break, he plans to treat himself.

The plan, however, finds a slight change when the guy paying at the register before him turns around a little too quickly and nearly runs into Vernon.

“Oh shit, sorry,“ the guy mutters, pushes his slid down beanie out of his eyes, and then-

“Oh, hey, Vernon.“

The man’s eyes crinkle up a little as he moves away from the counter. They seem to be underlined in black.

“Wonwoo-hyung, hi,“ he replies with a smile. “Didn’t think we’d… well, _you_ would run into me here.“

Wonwoo huffs his one-syllable laugh.

“Didn’t really plan to come here in the first place, but, you know - plans.“

Mr. Jung gives Wonwoo a pointed look at the possible implications of that statement, which he luckily doesn’t notice, so Vernon quickly turns his own attention to the shop owner and retrieves his vinyls from him. After a bow and a “Happy Chuseok“, which Wonwoo politely wishes as well, the dancer holds open the door for his new companion.

„So, what did you get?“ he asks in honest curiosity. Wonwoo’s appearance leaves only little room for guesses in his taste in music, but it’s been a while since they’ve exchanged recommendations.

“Stuff for my friend, mostly, but they are selfish gifts,“ Wonwoo replies as he digs a pack of cigarettes out of his motor jacket.

“Some Fugazi and Dinosaur Jr.. Want one?“ he offers Vernon.

“I don’t smoke.“

“Huh. Didn’t we use to smoke together?“

Vernon shakes his head.

“That was college days. Don’t do it anymore now.“

Wonwoo shrugs and lights his solitary cigarette.

“Can I give you a lift home then? Can’t have your ankles freeze off,“ he grins after taking a drag. The smoke billows in a nearly pristine white in the cold, stark contrast against his dark appearance. His waterline is definitely traced in black, Vernon notes. It looks good. Ruggish.

Vernon points at his bike.

“Got my trusty steed, can’t leave her here to get rusty,“ he says, earning a deadpan stare from Wonwoo.

“Lame pun,“ he snorts, to which Vernon retaliates with a shrug of his own.

“You look good, though,“ the older smiles as he puts out his cigarette against the sole of his shoe. “Healthy. It was good seeing you, Vernon.“

The way he says his name carries a sweetness of tangerines and warmer winds that wins a battle against the bitter taste the smoke left on Vernon’s tongue. Wonwoo looks hesitant for a second, then leans forward to give the younger man a quick hug.

“You too,“ Vernon answers as he squeezes his elder a bit, receiving a small huff in return. “Say hi to your family.“

Wonwoo nods and heads towards the ugliest outdated BMW Vernon has ever seen, covered in stickers of bands and political slogans and… a sticker from the university’s art faculty?, where scratches and bumps taint the black surface. It’s so Wonwoo, it makes Vernon laugh a bit.

“You have my number?“ Wonwoo calls before getting in.

“Bet,“ Vernon replies and mounts his bike.

*

The training bag gets thrown on the floor in his room. His coat and scarf, too. The beanie gets flung on the coatrack with perfect aim. Seokmin isn’t home yet, but Vernon still wouldn’t leave a mess in the entrance, where he only left his shoes. With a fresh change of sweatpants and a plain white T, he grabs one of his new vinyls and heads into the bathroom where he sets up the disk on his spare record player while he runs the water. Seokmin had been unsure about putting the device into the constantly damp room at first, more out of concern to accidentally damage it, but Vernon had showed him how to clean the player and keep it dry on the shelf where even a Kim Mingyu can’t knock it over.

As soon as the temperature of the water is right, Vernon throws Mrs. Hong’s bath salts in, sets the needle on the record, and gets undressed. Brew (Regurgitated) sounds out of the speaker as he steps into the tub. Time to relax his sissone-jump sore muscles.

Sadly, his plans are disturbed once again. The first song on the record isn’t even over yet (admittedly, it’s over six minutes long) when he hears the front door slam open, followed by sounds of a scuffle and a shrill “hold on, Vernon is in there!“ before the bathroom door is swung open and in bursts a guy with heated cheeks and a gigantic duffle coat slowly sliding off his shoulders.

Vernon stares into round eyes, hands still massaging his tired thigh because his muscle memory is stronger than his common sense that tells him that his position must look very compromising, a thought that is clearly reflected in the guy’s look at him. And still, all he can do is offer a tentative smile.

“Uh, well. Hi“

“I’m so sorry!“ Seokmin near screams as he kneads Vernon’s shoulder on the couch.

“I didn’t think of telling him that you’re usually in the tub at this time, and the music threw me off! What kind of relaxation was that even supposed to be?!“

“McKenna is cool,“ Vernon mumbles into the cushions.

“You bought a whole Tash Sultana record! How was that a more appropriate bathing soundtrack than Tash fucking Sultana!“

Vernon laughs at his roommate’s desperate attempts to cover up how sorry he felt for not preventing that whole bursting in incident. Immediately after the friend he had brought over had started to make confused noises in the doorway, Seokmin had pulled him back into the living room and pulled the door shut with a screamed “I’m so sorry, continue!“, followed by a confused and slightly terrified “Continue??“ from his guest.

Seungkwan, the guy that had disturbed his bath time, was very sorry as well when Vernon came out a little while later - he had figured that ‚calm’ wasn’t really an achievable state anymore -, and after Seokmin had explained to him that the dancer was indeed _not_ jacking off in the bathtub, but taking care of his very exhausted, very overworked muscles.

“I apologise _so_ sincerely to have bursted in on you, I really did not mean to invade your privacy like that“, he had said with a remaining hint of pink in his cheeks.

“You could’ve just gone to the toilet after choir“, Seokmin had mumbled behind his back, to which Seungkwan had replied with a whined “I didn’t need to go then, and you made me drink your leftover tea that you bought even though you knew you didn’t like it!“

Vernon had just chuckled about their antics and smiled at Seungkwan when he told him not to worry about it. The guy was nearly a head smaller than him, but he carried himself with such self-assurance, despite the situation he was in. His eyes had glinted with relief and a gentle joy when he heard Vernon’s reply, and then he’d left the apartment.

“I’m glad you’re not seriously mad at me, because that would have been pretty bad for me, but that was still super embarrassing and I need at least four days to get over that,“ was what he had said to the taller before squeezing his arm once, throwing an empty plastic bottle at Seokmin’s head and heading out the entrance. “Thank you for letting me use your toilet, happy Chuseok!“ was his goodbye before the door shut behind him, leaving Seokmin to shout mild-ish profanities at him and Vernon to laugh at that exchange.

Now Seokmin is groaning pitifully and burying his face in Vernon’s back.

“That was NOT how the day was planned to go,“ he sighs.

Vernon tries to twist his arms so he can pat his friend on the head, but has to stop his endeavour when his muscles scream at the pull. With a grunt, he somehow manages to turn on his back without pushing Seokmin to the floor.

“And now Seungkwan is gonna feel bad about it, too, for sure, and he was so excited to meet you.“

“He was?“ Vernon asks while he can finally start patting Seokmin’s ashy blond hair.

“Yeah, he thought it was so cool that you did ballet after I’d told him about your personality. I guess he thought that clashed, but he was genuinely curious to meet you.“

The man’s sharp features twist in worry when he finally starts unwrapping Vernon’s hot wraps to stick them to some more or less calculated places on his upper arms.

“I bet he feels really embarrassed now, even if he should get used to that, but it’s still a shitty thing to happen. Turn back around and take your shirt off if you want some on your back,“ he says with a slap on the last wrap on Vernon’s arm.

“Hyung, you were literally lying on my back for ten minutes,“ the younger protests, but still does as he’s been told. The short bath was not nearly enough to give his body any proper regeneration.

“We wanted to do something cool with you, too,“ Seokmin sighs again while applying the sticking wraps to Vernon’s lower back, this time more carefully.

“Don’t worry too much, hyung. We’ll do something fun with him after Chuseok,“ Vernon smiles into the crook of his arm. He’s already looking forward to it, if he’s being honest, and dishonesty isn’t something he plays with.

“The weather is supposed to be nice next week.“

*

The weather is, of course, not nice the week after Chuseok.

When he steps out of the studio the next Monday, Vernon feels pretty good about not coming to training with his ‚trusty steed‘. The downpour is dreadful.

"God, do I hate my luck," Chan says next to him.

Vernon looks down to see the younger boy looking up, his brows furrowed in disdain.

"There is really no reason I should get soaked to my bones the day our radiators get checked."

"Aw man, that stinks," Vernon replies, to which Chan heavily sighs and says “No but it really does, that’s why we had to get repair people in.“

The innocent despair of his dancing colleague and friend makes Vernon laugh, and just as he is about to offer his umbrella to him, he feels someone’s arms wrap around his shoulders.

"Now that’s what I call disgusting,“ Jeonghan says. “Want a ride?“

'The ride' is Jeonghan’s best friend, who is parked a few hundred meters down the street. Vernon is apparently the only one astute enough to carry a fold-in umbrella around with him wherever he goes, so the three dancers squeeze into the little weather-safe space it provides and run to Seungcheol’s car with a lot of screeches and laughs until they breathlessly drop into the Jeep’s back seat. The drive is filled with relaxed chatter while the three dancers rub each others’ arms, legs and backs warm, Seungcheol complaining about feeling like a glorified taxi driver and Jeonghan’s witty retorts giving them enough to laugh about. Even Chan, who was intimidated by the stranger’s overall authoritative presence at first, soon jokes along with his elders.

Vernon asks to be dropped off in front of the grocery store instead of directly home to avoid any further delay in the other guys’ schedules, but also to grab some soy milk since Seokmin decided to have three bowls of cereal in the middle of the night after studying instead of having dinner, again. He is in and out of the store, popping up his collar against the cool wind that is picking up again. The rain hasn’t gotten any weaker, but luckily his apartment is a mere four-minute walk away, and so is his bathtub. Once again the wish of an AI system that starts running the water for him to plunge into right upon coming home crosses Vernon’s mind, leaving him shivering in the cold. There’s a box on the sidewalk, sinking into itself when its soaked through walls are pushed down by the weight of the downpour, which pretty accurately represents the way Vernon feels at the moment.

Except Vernon doesn’t mewl like the box does.

Or wiggle.

Vernon slowly approaches the suspicious activity and carefully crouches down next to it when he can’t see the content right away. His duffle bag is heavy, slung on his back, and his thighs ache from the movement, and the wind keeps blowing the rain into his face despite the umbrella resting on his head now, but all of that discomfort is forgotten when the young man lifts the box’s lid.

“Oh…. my god,“ he whispers. And stares.

It’s kittens.

One of them screams at Vernon and falls over one of its siblings, making him gasp in awe. Two of them are the most luminous orange a cat could be, while the third is a wild mix of browns and greys, digging against the walls of the wet box.

“You are the most precious little babies,“ he barely utters, gasping again when the loud one manages to stand up against the box, looking up at him.

And screams again.

And Vernon gasps again.

And then the other kittens start reacting to him, coming closer, until Vernon finally dares to reach out to the little animals. His fingers feel like they’ll freeze off if he doesn’t bury his hand back into his pocket within the next 19 seconds or so, but he’s soon met with soft fur and warm little noses pressed against his palm - one last gasp before Vernon sets down his milk.

“Alright, you’re coming with me.“

*

“Can baby cats have soy milk“ is more widely looked up than one would think, even more when so one would think that the answer is rather clear - NO, baby cats cannot have soy milk. However, baby cats need to eat, and Vernon has literally no idea what.

“They’re like real babies, right? They probably can’t have solid foods yet. But i can’t mush carrots for them, either,“ Vernon mutters to himself.

He did _not_ think this through when he’d just scooped up the kittens and set them into his training bag to hurry home as quickly as possible. He’s never had cats, but god does he love them, although that doesn’t help him much in this situation. But the sight of the little creatures stumbling around on the living room carpet definitely makes up for his slight despair. They are. SO cute.

One of the orange ones keeps screaming and meowing at him and its siblings with its shrill little voice, the grey one replying from time to time. The other orange one is exploring the new environment, making big steps and hopping around loose threads in the carpet. Vernon can’t help grinning at the sight, especially when the loud one ventures closer to him and starts attacking his knee.

The living room floor looks like a battlefield. His bag is laying around open, some of its contents strewn around while the rest of it is in the laundry basket since one of the cats apparently peed into it, several towels Vernon used to wipe away said pee and rub the kittens dry are lying on the ground, and his wet coat is carelessly thrown onto the sofa. At least his umbrella is set to dry in the bathroom and not on Seokmin’s nice (-ish, but don’t tell him that) carpet.

“What do baby cats eat“ only tells him that he needs baby cat milk. A piece of information that proves more helpful when Vernon checks where you can buy said milk and he finds out that you can get it at any grocery store. In fact, the chain that the store he just came from belongs to, carries it as well.

A quick text to “please get that (insert picture of baby cat milk here)“ is shot at Seokmin, who replies with a pointed “ **????** “, before Vernon heaves himself off the ground to clean up the mess he’s made. His movement is met with a protesting cry from two of the three kittens, the orange one immediately attempting to climb up his leg.

“Alright, Napoleon,“ Vernon laughs. “You can help.“

It isn’t long before the front door opens and Seokmin’s “Vernon what the heeeell!!“ sounds through the apartment. Despite the urgency of his roommate’s tone, Vernon calmly looks out of the bathroom where he was scrubbing the inside of his bag to rid it of any cat pee residue. The kitten from before has conquered his sweater’s hood and fell asleep in it after playing with one of the hoody strings for a bit, while the other orange one has gone to sleep in the middle of the carpet. It’s the grey one that is now curiously hopping towards a terrified looking Seokmin.

“What’s up?“ Vernon asks innocently. “Did you get that milk?“

The little grey one is now screaming at his roommate.

“Vernon I’m allergic! Why did you carry two random cats into our apartment?“

“Three, actually,“ Vernon says when the kitten in his hood starts stirring and climbs onto his shoulder. “Meet Napoleon Bonaparte, Kimchi-Jjigae and Earl Grey, names are more or less likely to change.“

Despite his initial shock, Seokmin laughs at the absurdity of these names. “What the hell did you call a cat Kimchi-Jjigae for, that’s so random?“

Vernon doesn’t take any offence in his friends words and just shrugs with a grin. “Maybe I was a bit hungry.“

After moving around the Earl, who has started sniffing his shoes, Seokmin comes towards Vernon to hand him a plastic bag with the cat milk in it.

“They only had these huge combination packs, but I guess that’s not that big of a problem,“ he says while tentatively reaching for Napoleon Bonaparte on Vernon’s shoulder. The kitten immediately grips his finger with its paws and starts gnawing on it, at which the man’s eyes widen with momentary panic before he laughs again.

“I guess they’re cute enough.“ With a look at Vernon’s happy face, he can’t help but notice the exhaustion showing itself in his tensed up jaw and the mess of his usually neat hair.

“Wait, did you not take your bath yet? You kinda look… pretty shit, actually. Were you out in the rain for long?“

“Uuh, yeah, kinda,“ Vernon realises. “I was sorta distracted, honestly, but I guess I’ll do that now.“ He goes to gather the other kittens while Seokmin runs into the kitchen to quickly wash his hands before he accidentally rubs cat particles all over his face. Vernon follows soon after to finally feed the animals.

Both of them crouch down when the kittens have stopped their screaming and hungrily gather around the bowl, greedily lapping at the milk. Seokmin laughs when Kimchi-Jjigae nearly drops its little face into it and sighs.

“I haven’t sneezed yet, so I guess they can stay.“

Vernon looks up to his friend with a beaming grin.

“Thank you!“

*

How is it that both his last post-training bath times have been disturbed so drastically? Vernon sincerely hopes that this doesn’t become a common occurrence and he’ll be able to disrupt this unlucky streak on Wednesday when he has training again, because right now he’s setting up new televisions at work and his whole body hates him with a passion. God do his calves _hurt_. And his thighs. And his ass. And his whole entire back. And his neck.

“Is this what it feels like to be old?“ he says to no one in particular, but of course his boss hears him.

“It is, my boy! And it gets worse, trust me!“ Mr Hong shouts from the kitchen appliances, eliciting a groan from Vernon. He took a bath, in the end, but his evening was everything but the ordinary when he had dinner nearly two hours later than usual and got only little sleep after his evening yoga got disturbed by the kittens exploring his room, and other nightly activities. He had to carry them into the bathroom at one point because he realised that they could pee onto his comforter at any given second, and he did NOT want that, as much as he loved the little rascals. He nearly fell asleep on the bus to work, but luckily the human interactions with customers in the electronics store are managing to wake him up.

Especially when the bell above the shop entrance jingles violently around noon, followed by a loud “Mr. Hong, I need a printer!“

Vernon looks up as his boss chuckles “Good morning to you, too“ at the customer.

“Sorry for being so loud,“ the guy replies apologetically. “I’m just really in a hurry right now, and kinda stressed.“

Mr. Hong, patient as always, just waves the worry away.

“I know you aren’t as rowdy as you look, Wonwoo. Vernon will help you with that printer in no time.“

Both of the men look up at the same time.

“Wonwoo! We meet again,“ the younger one exclaims. The other one looks a bit taken aback, pulling off his beanie to reveal a messy heap of black hair and… wow, those are a lot of piercings that Vernon did not notice the last time he saw Wonwoo.

“Oh, hi. I didn’t know you worked here,“ he greets him back, coming towards the younger as he makes his way towards him to converse without shouting across the shop.

“Well, not being the lead in ballet productions doesn’t make up for all of my worldly desires on top of rent and living expenses,“ Vernon replies as he stops in front of his elder.“Joshua got me the job a few years ago when I didn’t want to leech off of my parents’ allowance any longer, so now I’m leeching off his parents now,“ he grins into Mr. Hong’s direction.

Wonwoo smiles at him, his cheeks still flushed from the cold. He’s wearing a different leather jacket now. This one has a furry collar that seems to be the softest part of his whole appearance. He looks… sharp, that’s the only way Vernon can describe his look, and his dark and confident clothing makes him seem much bigger than he actually is, even if he is neither much taller than Vernon, nor much wider. All in black, with a backpack reminiscent of his BMW’s look, shiny and slightly pointy leather boots, skinny jeans with security needles at the seams and the eyeliner he noticed last time. And the piercings. Vernon’s breath catches a bit when he sees that not only both ears, but also one of his eyebrows are decorated with silver. Wonwoo got even cooler from when they’d see each other during Vernon’s college days.

He gets ripped out of his contemplations when Wonwoo replies to him.

“Right, I’d like to ask about Seokmin and Josh, but I really need to get that printer,“ he says with an apologetic smile, rubbing his hands on his pants.

“Oh sure,“ Vernon replies after a little pause. He can feel himself flush a bit, flustered that he checked out Wonwoo so hard he spaced out.

“What do you need a printer for so quickly? Doesn’t every self-respectable, what, master’s student have one?“

Wonwoo sighs. “Yeah, but mine broke down a while ago and Prof. Min sent me an email with a paper I need to print for him when I was already on my way home. He’s cool and all, but being his TA can seriously suck when he forgets his own deadlines and I have to save his academic ass. I don’t have time to drive all the way back to the copy shops on campus and send the thing off to research, and I need a new printer anyways.“

While his customer was rambling about his worries, Vernon was leading them to the office appliances section, where he chose the cheapest printer that he knows will actually do its job a long time and not die from staring at it a bit too hard.

“This bad boy can do all your regular printing stuff,“ he says with a slap on the device, pulling Wonwoo’s attention to him again.

“It’s not super expensive, but this one is usually pretty fast and dependable, and it’s pretty easy to set up with the internet and laptops and stuff. The more expensive ones just have some fancier touch pads or voice activation, and I’m assuming you don’t need a photo printer so it should be pretty okay for a student,“ he continues while the older man stares at the thing in interest, but also slight desperation.

Sensing his elder’s worry, Vernon chuckles and claps a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m off for lunch in a bit anyways, how about I set it up for you here and you can print your thing right away?“

Wonwoo’s eyebrows turn up in an expression of pure relief.

“God, please,“ he shoots out, making the younger laugh.

*

Wonwoo leaves with his inked up printer, a stash of paper, and a gleeful wave upon entering his hideous car, Mr. Hong waving back enthusiastically. This costumer left a nice tip for the quick assistance and Vernon’s spontaneous help, which earns the employee a shower of compliments by his employer when he finally gets to start his lunch break. He spends more time on stretching his aching body than eating, and he can not _wait_ for a bath when he ends his shift four hours later. He plans to bring the kittens to the vet first, though. Who knows how long they’ve been out on their own, maybe they’re sick or carry flees or something of the sorts. But after that, Vernon will bathe for at least half an hour. No disturbances in his plans today.

“The cats cannot stay, Vern,“ Seokmin says with a tremendous sniff. “I’m sorry, but this day has been hell for my poor allergic body.“

The kittens are playing on the sofa, only Kimchi-Jjigae acknowledging Vernon’s arrival with a soft meow.

“You need to find someone to take them, please,“ his poor roommate tells him from his room’s doorway, standing as far away from the kittens as he possibly can without completely disappearing out of view. “I left the door open in case they started some shit, but that was already bad enough.“

Vernon can see from where’s he’s dropping off his shoes that Seokmin is in a _bad_ shape. Eyes swollen and red behind his glasses, a runny nose, and his incessant sneezing are pretty good indicators that his friend’s situation is quite serious, which makes Vernon feel pretty bad about leaving him to watch for the cats while he was at work. In his defence, Seokmin had been pretty confident that he wouldn’t react that badly, saying that working on his assignments while the cats went on with their days shouldn’t be a problem. Obviously, he had thought very wrong.

The cats are picked off the couch, eliciting loud, heart-melting purrs and meows from the the entangled heap they build in Vernon’s arms as they’re carried into the kitchen to get them some milk.

While the kittens are busy drinking, Vernon walks over to Seokmin’s room, making sure not to enter it as not to spread more cat hair into it.

“I’m really sorry man,“ he saysto his sniffling friend. “I’ll clean the apartment when you’re off to classes after I’ve gone to the vet, okay?“

Seokmin nods with a thankful pout.

“And I’ll text around to find someone to take them, don’t worry,“ Vernon adds. He is rather sad to have to let his new friends go, but his roommate’s health is more important.

“Thank you,“ Seokmin says, his voice all croaky and muffled from his stuffed nose. He sounds like he’s about to die, and Vernon can’t have that, so he sits down on the kitchen floor next to the cats to find a solution.

Joshua’s family has a dog. Chan’s apartment doesn’t allow animals bigger than a mud turtle. Mingyu, a walking boulder of a man, somehow gets the “heebie-jeebies“ from cats (his words, not Vernon’s). Jeonghan replied with a picture of two very big adult cats piled up on his chest and a simple “no thank you“.

“Nobody wants my little babies!“ Vernon shouts across the apartment, startling The Earl from her slumber with a purr. The other two kittens are still dozing in his lap, nestling themselves against his petting hands in their sleep.

“Ask the internet then!“, Seokmin shouts back. Vernon can see him packing his stuff for his evening class through the open doors. A look to his watch makes him curse under his breath. It’s nearly time for the appointment he made earlier today, and he still hasn’t found a new home for the cats. He decides to try one last person before he’ll ask the vet for any possibilities later, and he prays that he’s not out of line with his problem.

**vernon**

hyung do you like cats

**Jeon Wonwoo**

Fuck yeah man, I love cats, why

**vernon**

okay how about three of them

**Jeon Wonwoo**

Sure thing

Wait

Why

Vernon??

What are you asking for???

*

“They… are… beautiful.“

“Do you want to take them in?“

“Oh my god are you kidding? Yes! If I can?“

Wonwoo had come to meet Vernon in front of the veterinarian without asking any questions after the younger had sent him the location. The suspicion he'd had about the nature of the meeting had come to be true when Vernon let him look into the wicker basket he was carrying along.

“I can’t keep them with Seokmin’s condition, and I guess you should pay for getting me an allergic roommate,“ he jokes, making the older one laugh in a relaxed manner, his nose bunching up all cute.

“Hi… Oh my god you are the absolute cutest,“ he whispers as he tentatively reaches into the basket, immediately greeted with cheerful meows and purring. Vernon nearly doesn’t want to take the kittens to their appointment so he can keep observing Wonwoo’s enamoured reaction to them. He’s smiling in a way that makes him look absolutely blissed out, and Vernon feels sorry to interrupt him.

“I told the receptionist that I’d wait outside until it was our turn so I could catch you, but it’s nearly time, so do you wanna come with?“ he asks his elder.

Wonwoo straightens himself with a last coo towards the cats and nods at Vernon.

“Sure,“ he replies. “Only makes sense when I’m taking them.“

Dr. Park is really nice and understanding of their situation. She gives Wonwoo an unsure look, probably mistrusting his abilities as a loving cat dad due to his appearance and pretty stern face, but she relaxes when she sees him playing with Kimchi-Jjigae and he starts smiling softly. Vernon has to admit that Wonwoo’s neutral face can look pretty scary to people that don’t know him, nearly mean with his dark makeup, and his reserved behaviour towards strangers can make him seem rude at first, but his unwavering attention towards the vet’s explanations and his interested questions show how serious he is about the cats, and how trustworthy he is.

Vernon is pretty glad he thought of texting Wonwoo, too, because he feels like he hit the actual jackpot with that decision. Plus, the check-up on the cats is as positive as it can be.

“They must be around seven weeks old, judging from their moving abilities“ Dr. Park explains, “so they’re pretty lucky you found them, Mr. Chwe. Kittens shouldn’t be separated from their mothers this early, and they wouldn’t have survived on their own for much longer. They’re a bit malnourished, but that’s understandable considering they ended up in a box on the street, and with good care you will be able to get them up in shape. In at a month I need you to come back for another checkup and so we can chip them.“

She pauses for a bit to give one of the kittens a pat on the head, then continues her explanation. Since their eyes and noses are clean and they are lice-free, she assumes that the cats were set out of the street from a house cat’s litter, making both Vernon and Wonwoo frown at the thought.

As if to voice their disdain, one of the kittens screams, making the veterinarian laugh.

“She’s a lively one,“ she says while the intern who was in the room during the examination lifts the kittens back into their wicker basket.

“Oh, so Napoleon Bonaparte is a girl,“ Vernon mumbles surprisedly under his breath, making Wonwoo snort next to him.

“I need to know their names as soon as we’re out of here,“ he demands while the receptionist prints out the information the doctor has compiled for them. Vernon gives an incredulous chuckle when he finds out that Kimchi-Jjigae is, in fact, the only male, leaving Earl Grey as the second female.

“No more calling you The Earl then, I guess,“ he says while writing down the cats’ names onto their respective sheets, handing them and the basket to Wonwoo when they step outside. It’s gotten darker now, and Vernon gladly accepts the older’s offer to drive him home.

“So, uh, would you like to buy stuff for them with me one of these days? And you can visit the cats?“ Wonwoo asks after a very loud car ride, caused by both his car’s elderly state and the cats’ excited screams.

Vernon secures the seatbelt around the basket he’s placed on the passenger seat and looks up to Wonwoo with a soft smile.

“I’d love to.“

The elder nods.

“Cool, I’ll text you then,“ he says before driving off when Vernon has given the kittens one last pet. He already misses them. And can’t wait to see them again.

Vernon is finally taking his well deserved bath with his nicest smelling bath salts after hoovering, dusting, scrubbing and airing the whole apartment for Seokmin’s return, when he gets interrupted in his dozing by the pinging of his phone, announcing a notification.

This disturbance, however, does not ruin his peace this time.

**Jeon Wonwoo**

I still can’t believe you named a cat _Kimchi-Jjigae._


	2. Hot Mulled Spice For Cold Weather

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you didn't see it already in the tags, YES this fic starts with verkwan!! it's a slowburn wonsol, but don't worry, I don't intend on making anyone suffer from heartbreak. and there is absolutely no shortage of wonwoo here! in fact, this chapter finally gives his pov in the beginning, so enjoy a little valentine's day treat ;)

_There’s no honesty._

_A fierce look when they smile._

What is it about the simplest words that startle a train of thought of the deepest nature, but that they are so impossible to translate and convey? When is a mutual understanding going to be achieved solely through a talk? Probably never. Yes, communication is key. But isn’t it much more convenient to let your feelings soar out of you in song?

_Skill of inconsistent conversation, I wanna stay forever dumb._

_I don’t want anything more._

Wonwoo exhales. White and biting.

And inhales. Blue and clear.

There’s a dog barking somewhere, loud enough to sound over Hwang Soyoon singing in his earphones, causing him to furrow his brow as he looks towards the park at the end of the road, but the sun on his face soon has him relax his features again.

Whatever. Loud dogs usually don’t like him, but it’s not like he’s particularly threatening to them at the moment.

It’s Saturday afternoon, later than when he’d planned to meet Vernon to go to the pet supplies’ store. Vernon had training every day and another shift at Mr. Hong’s store Friday morning, and even today he had to spend his morning at the ballet studio.

But it’s not like Wonwoo didn’t have anything to do, either. Between running errands for Prof Min, holding and attending lectures of his own, and working on his assignments, he’s had to pose for Minghao (even though he wasn’t quite sure how his modelling translated onto his friend’s canvas) and save Jihoon in master’s project related crisis that had involved a Matrix binge and a lot of junk food.

And, of course, he had plenty to do with the cats.

Wonwoo has spent most of his week getting used to this new living arrangement, making some ground rules (mostly for himself after he’d spent three hours entertaining the kittens and had ended up nearly missing an appointment) and assuming somewhat of a schedule around the cats’ eating times. He’s also kinda managed to teach them that peeing was strictly bathroom business, even if they still relieve themselves on the tiles, seeing how he doesn’t have a litter box for them yet.

Couldn’t wait to get one. The bathroom doesn’t stink as of now, but that’s because Wonwoo spends half an hour scrubbing it every day. Please, no more. His hands are even drier than usual now.

The dog barks again. A truck passes by and the reflection of the sun in its window momentarily blinds Wonwoo where he’s leaning against his car in front of Vernon’s apartment complex. After all the rain this week, the sky has finally cleared up to reveal a cool autumn sun. It’s not necessarily warm, but Wonwoo was too nervous to stay put in his car, so here he is, smoking his third cigarette since lunch and repeatedly checking his phone for nothing in particular. Vernon has already replied to his text, saying that he’ll be down in a while, but it doesn’t stop Wonwoo from being kinda jittery.

It’s been, what, three years?

“Damn,“ Wonwoo whispers to himself. It’s kinda sad that he hasn’t really hung out with the younger boy for so long. If he can even call him a boy anymore.

Wonwoo can’t help but grin at the thought, quickly burying his hands in face.

Needless to say, he’s happy to get to spend the day with Vernon today.

The car sinks a bit behind him when someone leans against it.

“Everything okay with you?“

Wonwoo’s head shoots up and he nearly rips his ears off along with his headphones.

“Uh, yeah, peachy! Everything’s fine with me!“

Vernon next to him laughs a bit at how startled he is. Can’t really blame him.

Wonwoo manages to collect himself quite quickly and stands up straight to smile at Vernon, who looks at him expectantly.

“You ready to get the kittens some cool shit?“

“You know me, always ready to spend money on baby cats.“

*

Vernon is looking through the CDs Wonwoo keeps stashed in his car, nodding when he finds groups that he knows and asking questions about the others. All the while, Wonwoo is telling him about how the cats have been holding up, his phone blabbering some directions in between to guide them to the store.

“I’ve been meaning to get a cat for a while now anyways,“ Wonwoo says when Vernon finally pushes Hot Mulligan into the CD slot. The first song booms out of the speakers, causing both of them to jolt in their seats and scramble to turn the volume down. Wonwoo can’t help but laugh when he sees how out of breath Vernon is from the initial shock, and the younger soon joins in.

“So, why didn’t you?“ Vernon finally asks.

Wonwoo shrugs.

“Just didn’t come around to it. I’d just started working at the university and my assignments were seriously kicking my butt last semester, so taking care of anything else aside from me wasn’t really an option.“

“See, that’s why I dropped out,“ Vernon grins. “You major in history, right?“

“Yeah, I’m thinking of specialising on prehistoric East-Asia,“ Wonwoo replies with a glance to him.

“No joke, huh,“ the younger mumbles, pushing his fingers through his hair. He must have showered right before coming down to meet Wonwoo, because the tips seem to be still wet. His cheeks are still reddened, too, even if that might be from the cold.

Speaking of the cold, Vernon is wearing wider blue jeans and a cream coloured knit sweater with a bear stitched on the front, paired with some sneakers. And that… seems to be it.

“Vernon, did you not bring a jacket?“ Wonwoo asks incredulously.

Vernon looks down on himself in what seems to be surprise, like if he doesn’t remember what he’s wearing.

“No, not really,“ he replies with a sheepish grin and a shrug.

Wonwoo looks at him with disgust as he pulls the car into the pet supplies store’s parking lot. The place was closer than they had both thought when they had looked it up, and they probably passed by it on the regular, but as they had never needed to know where it was they had never noticed it before.

“You _are_ aware that it’s barely eight degrees, right?“

“The sun looked warm enough to me,“ Vernon says, blinking out of the window into the glaring ball of gas perched in the cool blue sky.

Wonwoo sighs.

“Alright, I’m not gonna be responsible for your wet head getting a cold. I have a trench coat in the back that you can wear.“

Vernon looks at him with an impish gleam in his eyes that Wonwoo can’t really read. He swallows.

“Is it black?“

*

Vernon looks comically tiny in Wonwoo’s rather large coat. Of course it’s black. Near everything Wonwoo owns is black, but Vernon did not have to ask as if he was going to laugh about every single fashion choice Wonwoo has ever made.

“You look like a flasher or something,“ he tells Vernon, who hurriedly undoes the knot he has just tied with the belt.

“I think we should focus on something else than our outfits today and get shopping instead,“ he says, making his way towards the entrance of the store.

Right. Cat… stuff. That’s why they’re here.

As soon as they enter the store, Wonwoo regrets not having made a list of the supplies he really needs. There are so many things here that he just knows he’ll either get overwhelmed or just take whatever he finds cute. Luckily, Vernon seems to have somewhat of a plan.

“So, from what I heard you say, a litter box is priority, right?“ he says with a look on his phone. “And I guess, like, a bed and some toys?“

“Yeah, sounds good,“ Wonwoo says. “Let’s go.“

There’s a nice girl that helps them out when they tell her that Wonwoo has three little rescues, and shows them the most appropriate objects to get. Apparently, most of the things will have to be upgraded once the cats get bigger, so Wonwoo decides to just grab the adult stuff right away to save future him some money. Also, if he does the math correctly, three baby cats kind of amount to one big cat. So it’s fine.

“Are you really considering getting that?“ Vernon asks when Wonwoo is standing in front of a gigantic cat tree with tiger print, staring at it with apathy.

“God, no, it’s hideous. It just reminds me of someone.“

Vernon stands next to him, giving the thing a once over. His hair is completely dry now, slightly curled against his forehead. He has a relaxed look on his face when he turns to look at Wonwoo, his eyes slightly shifting up.

“I think you should get the pink version of that one. It fits your whole aesthetic so well,“ he says absolutely deadpan.

“Yes, it’s indeed so tasteful, it would go great next to the heart-shaped, uuuh, ’ _Super Cleaner Cat Toilet Bowl’_ we saw earlier,“ Wonwoo replies with the same straight face.

“It’s settled then.“

Vernon is the first one to break their act when Wonwoo actually reaches for the packaged tree, pulling him away with a snicker. Thanks to the store’s employees’ help, they gather all the things they need rather quickly and only hang around longer at the toys’ section, where everything seems to be made of feathers and little bells. The both of them keep decorating each other with whatever they can drape around the other’s neck or tuck behind their ears until they look like slightly emo Elton Johns. What doesn’t fall from their carefully stacked costumes gets bought, except for the squeaking alligator that seems to be from the dogs’ section.

When they go back to Wonwoo’s car they have acquired, aside from the plethora of toys, a litter box ( _not_ the _Super Cleaner Cat Toilet Bowl_ ) with the necessary litter to fill it with, a carrier for future vet visits because the wicker basket Vernon borrowed from Seokmin is just not going to cut it, a few bowls for food and water, and a plain, dark grey cat tree. Wonwoo had also insisted on buying a little hammock because he’d gushed about “how cute it would be when they slept in it, and also imagine all three of them in there! Vernon just imagine“ for at least five minutes until the younger had grabbed the package and stuffed it into their cart for him. He also thought of buying a few lint rollers, just in case.

Wonwoo and Vernon have to work around the bigger packages for a while because, of course, they did not consider the car’s size before buying all that stuff.

“We did not think this through,“ Vernon says when he finally sits in his seat which he had to push forward as far as it got.

Wonwoo’s position doesn’t look much better, but he still laughs at how Vernon manages to maintain his perfect posture in spite of the constricted space.

“No, we really did not.“

*

“Oooh, hey there.“

Wonwoo crouches down as soon as he opens his apartment door, leaving Vernon to lean over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of stumpy red tails.

“Did they already get bigger?“ he asks. The Earl comes running at them, falling over when she has nearly reached Wonwoo. The older one feels Vernon stepping over him to greet the third kitten, so he curls himself even tighter around Kimchi-Jjigae and Napoleon to let him pass.

“Hiii, babies,“ Wonwoo greets his kittens in a soft whisper, Napoleon just screaming at his face in glee and maybe disdain because she’s always hungry.

When he looks up, Vernon is playing with Earl Grey who chases his shoelaces around. His expression is entirely relaxed, joy spreading on his face with a smile that shows off his gums. Wonwoo ignores the cats that are attempting to jump onto his knees, looking at the scene in front of him before he shakes his head and stands back up to close the front door and take off his shoes. Seeing how Wonwoo isn’t playing with them anymore, the orange kittens turn their attention to Vernon, who falls on his ass with an “oof“ when he loses his balance due to the attack.

Wonwoo walks into the living room and throws the bag with the cat toys onto the sofa, his leather jacket following soon after. He bends backwards and hears his spine crack, probably all wonky from the cramped drive, and then carrying the boxes up.

“We left the stuff in front of your door, hyung,“ Vernon says from the living room entrance where he’s looking around the apartment, Wonwoo’s trench coat in his hand.

“Huh. Yeah, hold on, watch the cats so they don’t slip out,“ he replies as he takes the coat from Vernon and hangs it up on the rack he barely uses. He hears Vernon call the kittens to him while he quickly gets the packages and moves them into the living room as well.

Vernon is standing in front of his CD stand, looking at old The Cure and Dead Kennedys posters Wonwoo stole from his dad’s unfriendly colleague when he was sixteen, and the figurines stacked on his stereo. He turns around with a rip-off Slash bobble head Jun got him as a joke for his birthday two years ago, except the head falls off when Vernon starts to speak, causing the kittens to chase after it in a wild flurry of legs and colours.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry,“ Vernon says in obvious shock, but Wonwoo just grins as he puts down the last box.

“Don’t stress it, I got it like that,“ he replies. Napoleon Bonaparte is near mutilating the head, but well. Fits the figure well enough, he thinks. Still, he pries it from her claws to save himself from Jun’s laments should the gift get any more damaged than it already was.

Vernon doesn’t touch anything on Wonwoo’s packed shelves or entertainment center anymore, just standing in the room and letting his eyes drift around with quiet interest instead, and looking around as well, Wonwoo can’t help but realise that his place mustn’t look too tidy in his guest’s eyes. He hasn’t really dusted or cleaned up in a while, his books are just stuffed where he could fit them, the plants Minghao keeps sneaking into his apartment are barely alive, and there’s a pile of jackets and coats on the beaten leather armchair he found at a flea market, creating an unkempt chaos.

But despite the mess, the evening sun shines in from his westward windows and bathes the dancer in a warm gleam, in a manner that sets calm to the room, peace in its commotion, like he was the missing center piece to an artwork all along. Wonwoo has an old, but intact Pentax with empty film laying decoratively on the coffee table, a Canon slr he bought with his first university paycheck hanging in his bedroom, and at least one of two old school digital cameras always at hand - he knows his photography, and he knows that the composition of this setting is more than perfect. He also knows that he wants to keep looking at Vernon, his light brown hair illuminated in a messy halo around his highlighted cheekbones, the slope of his nose, his neck as he turns his head to explore the room by sight alone. His sweater looks badly rendered, like it’s going to disappear in vapour if Wonwoo moves, and his shadow seems to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

But he’s not going to try and capture the moment on camera. Not this time. No, for now, he’ll stand back and just look. Let them meet again first.

Vernon turns to look at him with a nod of quiet affirmation, like the room is just to his liking.

“So, to set this up then?“

Wonwoo’s expression is controlled and levelled when he nods back. Vernon pushes his sleeves up his arms and joins him where he’s kneeling next to the boxes on theground.

“To work,“ Wonwoo replies with a small smile.

*

Building a cat tree when the cats are in the same room and have already decided that it is the perfect spot to nap, unfinished or not, is not ideal. When the whole construction nearly topples over, Wonwoo decides to grab the kittens and carry them into the bathroom to potty train them, while Vernon remains in the living room to build the thing on his own. The cats are exhilarated to have acquired the most perfect playground ever, since cat litter is just so perfect to throw around with one flick of a tiny paw, so Wonwoo has to set Kimchi-Jjigae on his shoulder, where he happily rubs his little face against Wonwoo’s, and trap a wriggling Napoleon on the toilet seat, which is still too high for her to jump down from. The Earl is the first one to actually calmly assess the situation of the litter box, digging around a bit with her hind legs and, finally, putting it to its intended use.

“She’s peeing!“ he shouts at no one in particular, showering the kitten in compliments for her superior intelligence and incredibly sharp mind before he shouts another „Oh shit she’s peeing!“ and quickly transfers Napoleon Bonaparte into the box. The bathroom tiles are only minimally soiled when the last one of the the trio has also finally relieved himself, of course only after Wonwoo has removed the two other cats before they could roll around in the litter, and while he cleans up the little mess they’ve made, he keeps up his instructions.

“This is now your toilet, guys, the floor is off limits starting today. I will excuse any accidents for a week at most because you’re new to the whole being alive business - no offence Napoleon - no I really didn’t mean it like that- now would you calm down so I can talk-“

Wonwoo has to wrap a towel around the kitten to hinder her from ripping his jeans open with her small, but vicious claws, and huffs out a snicker when she screams delightfully in her fluffy prison. Kimchi-Jjigae immediately goes to sit on her and starts purring, eliciting a soft “noooo“ from Wonwoo. They’re so goddamn CUTE.

Since Earl Grey is the last one to seem to listen to Wonwoo, he sighs and shakes his head at them.

“You’re bad students, but the people at the shop said that you’re gonna learn how to do this on your own, so I’m counting on you.“

The Earl climbs onto his knees and waits for him to reach out for her so she can push her head against his palm. Napoleon Bonaparte wriggles out of her burrito and decides that the bathroom isn’t where she wants to be anymore, sauntering into the living room. Her brother is content with staying where she has pushed him off and keeps napping on the towel.

“Welcome back,“ Wonwoo can hear Vernon say from the living room. He smiles down at the cat in his lap before he sets her down as well and stands up. His black long-sleeve seems pee-free, so he goes to see how far Vernon got by himself.

“Oh, you’re done already?“ he asks when he finds the tree set up and pushed between the two living room windows.

“Yeah, it wasn’t all that hard honestly,“ Vernon replies with a once-over at his work before he looks at Wonwoo. “And you? Were your teaching methods efficient?“

“I’m assuming that Kimchi-Jjigae is peeing again, so I’ll just think that yes.“

Vernon laughs at that, and then looks down to Napoleon who has started scratching at the new tree.

They both stare at her a bit, completely captivated by whatever the kitten does solely because she’s a cute fucking kitten and they feel like they are witnessing the greatest miracle of life, until they are pulled out of their contemplations when The Earl comes galloping out of the bathroom in full speed and disappears into Wonwoo’s bedroom.

He smiles at Vernon.

“Want a coffee?“

*

“Do you always carry around a knife with you to open your cat supply boxes?“

Wonwoo chuckles.

“I’m pretty sure you’ve seen me carve some anarchist propaganda into campus benches with that back when I wasn’t as emotionally controlled.“

Vernon furrows his brow in confusion.

“Now that I think about it, that makes way more sense. I’d just figured you were constantly rolling blunts, but you smelled way too normal for that.“

They both have to laugh at this comment. Yes, Wonwoo was in a rather rebellious phase during his earlier college days, but he still would have never smoked anything else other than good old nicotine on school grounds. His appearance had already starkly contrasted his eagerness to learn back then, but he’d luckily found a crowd that shared similar interests to him and wouldn’t judge him for being so studious pretty quickly.

Vernon hadn’t really been part of that group, but since they’d known each other from even before Wonwoo used to tutor him and his little sister in high school, Wonwoo had offered to introduce the younger to college life when he’d found out from his mother that he’d go to the same one. They’d just hung out from time to time, until Vernon’s texts had gotten rarer and he’d one day called to say that he wouldn’t be able to meet up after classes anymore, since he wouldn’t attend any longer.

Wonwoo had felt pretty sick about that. He knew Vernon wasn’t really one to close off completely, so he’d spent a long while worrying that the real reason he didn’t tell him anything more about the situation was that he just didn’t want to see him, that Wonwoo had come off too strong and that the younger had started to find him weird, in short, that he himself was the reason Vernon had broken off contact little by little. He’d let it go after a while, especially when he’d heard from Joshua that Vernon had picked up ballet professionally.

He’d never really had any real closure, though.

“Why did you drop college, in the end? Didn’t you do graphic engineering or something? I thought that fit you well enough,“ he finally asks hesitantly.

Vernon sighs and wordlessly stares into his coffee. His expression is turning sour, nearly a frown, not something Wonwoo has ever seen on his usually so peaceful face, which immediately makes him regret he asked.

“Sorry if that’s a sensitive topic,“ he backtracks quickly. “We just never talked about it after… well, after you dropped out.“

Vernon shoots him a short look and proceeds to break off the chocolate chips on one of the cookies Wonwoo had put on the table.

“No, it’s fine. It’s just frustrating to think about how much of a slump I was in back there, and I guess I’m still a bit mad at myself for handling it the way I did. I was just really burned out really fast into my second year.“

Wonwoo leans back in his chair when Vernon doesn’t continue speaking for a while. This is honestly all news to him. For all he knew, his friend was having the most normal time a student could have, but he’d never realised that Vernon had had serious problems at university.

When Vernon speaks up again, he looks out the kitchen window. It’s gotten dark outside, and the street lamp that has started malfunctioning a while ago throws a distorting shine on his face every now and then. He looks edgy, now.

“I wanted to study something useful that would get me a rather safe future when highschool ended, and I was actually excited about what I’d chosen. I felt like it was a choice that my parents would approve of, too. It’s not like they pressured me to go to college or anything, I think they would have been fine with whatever I’d wanted to do, but I had this weird mindset that I had to grow up and start real life, with a career that would be reasonable for an adult.“

He sighs again, still staring into the darkness outside, or maybe at his own reflection on the dark kitchen window..

“I think I’d just started to feel bad for dancing ballet.“

Wonwoo looks up at that. Ever since he’s known Vernon, so probably middle school, ballet was part of his identity. Wonwoo has never actually seen him dance, he wasn’t a close enough friend to get invited to any events or anything, but he remembers that he always had to schedule his tutoring sessions around Vernon’s training. And the younger one had never expressed any shame in it, not that Wonwoo can recall.

“Did you stop? I thought you were still dancing in college.“

Vernon smiles briefly, before he takes a deep breath.

“I stopped right before junior year ended. I wanted to focus on finals, and the people in school made me feel like I was the odd one out for doing classical dance, along with the other stuff I had going on at the time. My parents were really confused about it, and the ballet teacher was set on not letting me go, but I had some issues that bothered me too much so I just dropped it completely. I wasn’t in the top five in our studio, and a career seemed unrealistic and ridiculous to me. I wasn’t…“ Vernon takes a break and shrugs after a while. “I just stopped. That was the end of it.“

While Vernon takes a sip of his coffee, all Wonwoo can do is stare at his own mug in his hands. Junior year of highschool… he’d already graduated back then, and made a point of cutting off ties with his hometown and old schoolmates by taking a gap year to Japan, so he’d never really tried to keep track of what was happening back there. Vernon was a friend he wasn’t worried about losing, since their mothers were quite close, so he’d never kept tighter contact than necessary. He’d just wanted to leave that time behind him, having faced enough troubles of his own. He’d never thought Vernon would have a hard time as well.

“College started off well enough,“ Vernon continues.

“We had some good times,“ Wonwoo replies with a smirk, eliciting a smile from the younger one.

“Yeah, it was cool, I liked hanging out with you. I felt grown up and like I was finally doing something important with my life, and I had fun studying design and all that, but it came crashing in pretty quickly. I had way more free time than what I was used to in high school, and I noticed that the time when I didn’t have anything better to do made me want to dance again, so I just took on a bigger workload to suppress that, until I kind of broke down under it. My mother said I should try to take dancing classes again, just to let off some steam, but then I felt pressured to compensate those with more studying again. At one point I barely went out anymore.“

Wonwoo nods at that.

“We did meet up way less than we used to,“ he says, to which Vernon seems to shrink into himself a bit. His shoulders are slightly drooped, his eyes still downcast, and Wonwoo wants to beat himself for making the younger talk about a time that has obviously been pretty dark.

Instead, he nudges the younger one’s leg with his foot until Vernon looks up at him, and gives him what he hopes is an encouraging grin.

“But here you are now, am I right? It got better.“

“It did,“ Vernon smiles. It’s an earnest kind of smile, one that straightens backs and is steeped in hope and confidence, one that lights up Vernon’s eyes, even if it’s barely wider than the smile the Girl With A Pearl Earring gifts her onlookers. Wonwoo can only feel ease at the sight, knowing that Vernon’s fire hasn’t died down and probably never will, that he got back up and will keep doing so.

“I dropped college and got good enough to be accepted into the national ballet school and earn money from dancing, so it did get better. And now here we are,“ he says.

Here they are indeed.

*

“What… are you doing.“

“Honestly, I have no idea.“

It’s not really a rarity for Seokmin to venture into the kitchen and actually make something more nutritious than, say, the instant pasta Vernon throws into the pot once a week to mix up the routine of the usually scheduled ramyeon, but to find him baking at 8 in the morning on a Sunday when he usually sleeps until at least 11 is still a bit surprising. Especially when it causes the smoke detector to set off.

“It wasn’t even the muffins that caught on fire, so I really don’t know what started to smoke,“ the maybe not so aspiring baker now says from where he’s perched on the counter, waving a paper plate in front of the aggressively beeping device.

“Those are supposed to be muffins?“ Vernon replies with a sceptical look on the deformed mass of dough on the baking tray. It’s way too liquid to even qualify as dough, but sure enough, there’s some coloured paper visible under all the chocolate.

Seokmin can’t even take offence at Vernon’s judging.

“I might have added, uuuh. Too little flour? Or too much milk?“

The smoke detector stops lamenting when the older decisively rips the batteries out of it.

“Look, I wasn’t really awake. I just got excited about today,“ he says as he climbs back to the kitchen floor and looks into the oven with a sigh.

“Are you really that happy about me meeting Seungkwan again?“ Vernon asks as he puts on the kettle to prepare tea.

“Sure! The weather is finally good enough and you guys are basically my two best friends, it’s cool that we’ll get to hang out like this!“

Seokmin grabs a spatula to scrape together the burnt dough that must have run over the sides of the tray onto the bottom of the oven and mutters vexedly: “If my surprise snacks hadn’t gone up in literal smoke, that is.“

With a chuckle, Vernon pours his friend a coffee and hands it to him, squatting in front of the oven by his side.

“I’m sure the day can still be saved,“ he yawns, earning a grin.

“Only barely,“ Seokmin replies, taking a big swig of his coffee and immediately shouting out a curse as he burns his tongue.

The day can only get better, Vernon hopes.

Honestly, he feels like it’s gonna go really good.

*

They are waiting for Seungkwan in front of a Starbucks in Myeong-dong, which was the plan all along, but he has announced in a message that he’s going to be with them a bit later than originally scheduled and that “if he ever got out of this hell hole, he would let everybody that stood in the way of him and his iced americano know what real pain was“. Seokmin apparently knows what that means, and also knows what his friend usually orders, so he had rushed into the place on his own to get the coffee ready for Seungkwan’s arrival.

Vernon sees him first, his blond hair disheveled from the wind and wrapped into a light coat. He’s is bowing profusely at a lady he just nearly ran into before coming their way, only recognising the two friends when he’s already walking past them. Luckily, the older manages to grab him by the elbow before he runs into the store.

“Seokmin, you’re a life saver,“ Seungkwan sighs after inhaling half of his beverage in one go. Then he turns to Vernon with a more relaxed look than before when he’d just hurriedly greeted him.

“I’m sorry you always have to meet me when I’m at my absolute worst, I promise I’ll try to make a better impression from now on,“ he says with a laugh, to which Vernon can only grin.

“I didn’t think you were bad last time, so there’s no need to worry,“ he replies, ignoring Seokmin whining about that fateful first encounter next to him.

“Good, I’m glad. You’ll have to excuse me, though, because my morning was shit and I just need to vent for a bit.“

Seokmin takes that as his cue to grab the paper bag Vernon had been holding so far and hold it open for Seungkwan to look into.

“We bought muffins, so take your time.“

As they set off to wander through the streets, which are busy enough on a sunny Sunday when the shops are open because this is the middle of Seoul and that’s how capitalism works, the blonde lets out such a heavy sigh that some guy even turns his head to look.

“Again, you are literally saving this day. I had to comfort my roommate because her boyfriend was cheating on her, _again_ , but neither of us knew that because he let it slip that it’s not even the first time he sleeps with some other girl, and I’ve been sitting through crying fits and angry phone calls since 7am with just some grapes in my stomach.“

Both Vernon and Seokmin make a disapproving noise at that, eliciting a chuckle from their friend.

“Straight men,“ he says with a shake of his head and a sip of his coffee. “I sure hope I won’t have to deal with any more of them today.“

Seokmin gives a playful little gasp at that and exclaims: “How would you know if Vernon isn’t straight? For all you know, you could be insulting him right to his face,“ which earns him half an indignant look from the mentioned himself, before his attention is once again turned to the shorter man.

“For my own sake, I’d just assumed he wasn’t,“ Seungkwan says with a fleeting, but so incredibly confident look at Vernon. The younger definitely notices the gleam of challenge in it, the notion that Seungkwan is fully aware of the boundaries he may just have overstepped, and his complete determination to carry on with these allusions without any reserve.

It’s refreshing. Seungkwan is daring and bold, and Vernon has absolutely no objections against his attitude.

So he just smiles at Seungkwan, rewarded with a fine dust of red on the blond’s cheeks when he understands the invitation that smile was, Seokmin just uttering a little “oh“ in the background.

Vernon was right to predict that the day is going to be good.

*

They don’t end up going all the way to Namsan Park like Seokmin suggested they could, because as much as the weather invites to walk by the university where they have to be confronted with, well, university, to get into the park and then sit in the humid grass or on a cold bench somewhere for a while, it is just as fitting for a non-committal stroll through the Seoul streets that are bustling with life, sounds, and smells of the various food stands and cafes.

Vernon can’t say that he’s in this part of the city very often, since his own school and the apartment are located in a different district where he can find all he needs in the smaller shops where Seokmin knows the owners by name. There isn’t really any reason for him not to take the bus to head into the university district or even Itaewon, but he’s just so much more comfortable with the places he can reach within fifteen minutes or less.

However, finding himself in the bigger, fuller streets again, especially in this company, he doesn’t mind the trip at all. The teokbokki just tastes different when it comes from an ahjumma sitting next to an obvious sex shop trying very hard to pass as not a sex shop - the atmosphere is just different here. The vibes coming from the group of people clothed in complete monochrome outfits are more carefree, more liberated when a guy pushes a shopping cart with tons of pristine poodles past them.

No, he really doesn’t mind at all.

“So, since when have you and Seokmin been living together? You were never in any of our performing arts courses, because I would have remembered you, so how do you even know each other if not through school?“

“Basically Seokmin whining about needing a new roommate to Kim Mingyu, who then whined about the whining to a friend who linked me up with him when I couldn’t stay in student housing anymore,“ Vernon replies, which prompts “Of course Mingyu would be involved“ as an answer, paired with his roommate's giggling.

“I didn’t whine that hard, Wonwoo-hyung was present when my first roommate left, so he knew about it anyways and just told you one day when I nearly had to drop the apartment,“ the eldest butts in, but Seungkwan meaningfully rolls his eyes at Vernon because Seokmin most definitely did cause a chain reaction of complaints that somehow ended up reaching Vernon.

“Why couldn’t you stay in the university dorms tho? Aren’t they, like, really good?“ Seungkwan inquires, receiving a small shrug from Vernon.

“I dropped out,“ he simply offers, but it doesn’t seems like the shorter is going to dig for any further explanation as he just exclaims “No way, are you a delinquent then?“ in glee. Vernon replies ’yes’ with the straightest face he can manage while Seokmin practically howls with laughter at the idea. Conversation is easy like that with Seungkwan, as it never takes the expected path and leads into unburdened places where Vernon doesn’t need to worry about coming off as gloomy or stand-offish.

The fact that all three of them work and learn in pretty similar areas also majorly helps out to keep their talking everflowing. The two music majors share stories from their department that Vernon has already heard before, but that are just so much more captivating and funny when Seungkwan tells them (seriously, his impressions are spot on - Vernon has met some of the people he is imitating, and he can’t help but laugh at the detailed renditions of voice cracks and spilled drinks), and they end up talking about their respective projects, the endless training, and the stupid assignments they need to hand in on on top of the field work.

Which leads them into a side-street charity shop where Seokmin has to gather his own costume props for a musical production of Dear Evan Hansen as a ’testing of his general sense of making directional choices‘ (“I’m a singer! A performer! I am literally singing as Evan Hansen and the costuming props I chose will be switched out with the official ones anyways! This is useless!“), causing the two younger men to wander through aisles of outdated dress shirts and shelves stocked with leather handbags and tarnished jewellery, picking out old toys and cheap romance books out of boxes. Their rummaging and joking actually reminds Vernon of his and Wonwoo’s antics in the pet supplies’ store the day before, except the two of them talk a whole lot more while they embellish each other with their findings.

“Do you have to prepare performances like Seokmin, too?“ Vernon asks as he places a fedora of the most repulsive brown on Seungkwan’s head, who promptly adds gigantic clip-on earrings to the look.

“Nah,“ the older replies, “I can’t act to save my life. Performance is really cool when I only have to sing and make the crowd go wild, but I’m better at variety shows than scripted ones. I’m working a lot in classical choirs right now, so I do have to back up in operas from time to time, but I’m trying to write my own stuff at the moment. Not that easy tho.“ Seungkwan throws a majorly oversized suit jacket with a really odd pattern in navy and forrest green around Vernon’s shoulders and frowns.

“How do you make every single thing in here work, you literally look perfect,“ he mutters. When he notices Vernon’s slight smile and the way he hums with a little question in his pitch, he faintly blushes and adds a hasty “in the worst clothes“. The taller can’t help but smile even wider at this reaction, pushing his arms through the jacket’s sleeves and checking himself out in the mirror. He finds rectangle-shaped glasses with blue tinted lenses, which slide down to the tip of his nose, and puts on a random bowler hat with a dusty feather, before he asks Seungkwan what music he listens to.

The blonde stands still for a while, looking past Vernon like he’s reflecting real hard on the question, then points to the ceiling of the little shop.

“Actually, the stuff they’ve been playing here is right up my alley. I listen to the great arias and all that jazz in my free time, of course, but with this I can just belt without worrying about my technique,“ he says with a smile.

As if that would help him visualise Seungkwan’s music taste in any way, Vernon actually looks up to where he pointed while he consciously listens to the song sounding over the old speakers stacked into some odd corners of the room. When he recognises ’Shock’ by Beast, he looks back to Seungkwan in surprise.

“What did you expect? Justin Bieber?“ the smaller laughs when he catches Vernon’s expression. “It’s mostly first and second generation Kpop, especially the old girl groups, and then of course the western divas.“

The song near seamlessly shifts into the Spice Girls’ ’Say You’ll Be There’, prompting Seungkwan to grin widely.

“See? That’s what gets me going,“ he says, plucking a pink feather boa from the clothing rack next to him and swinging it most dramatically around his neck. When one end lands in Vernon’s face and gets him choking from the dust that swirls up, he starts apologising profusely, but soon joins in to the younger’s muffled laughter.

With the boa wrapped around the both of them, they set out to find Seokmin, all the while talking about their respective music tastes.

“So only the classic American divas then? Beyoncé and Houston?“ Vernon asks, skipping over a box packed with packaged tin robots.

“Well, Kelly and Adele are in there, too, of course, and Lorde is in the close ranks, if she can count as a diva.“

“What about Winehouse?“

“Oh without a doubt, she’s legendary. H.E.R and Lizzo make me feel some great stuff, too.“

Vernon laughs at the way Seungkwan expresses himself, and then quickly steadies him by the shoulder when he suddenly trips over a mannequin arm.

“Thanks, but also what the fuck,“ Seungkwan mumbles, and then looks up at Vernon.

They are standing toe to toe in the narrow aisle, staring wordlessly at each other.

Considering the tension built up around them, as well as the fact that they have only really met each other a few hours ago, it would be considered too close, but the proximity is far from being uncomfortable. ’Wow’ by BTOB is now playing in the background, and Vernon doesn’t miss the faint blush creeping onto Seungkwan’s cheeks. His blonde hair is sticking slightly to his forehead under the fedora, and his soft eyes seem to get bigger by the second. All of a sudden, his expression has become innocent and earnest, dropping all the playfulness he had been carrying himself with throughout the day. The shift of his attitude makes Vernon curious and lures him in, posing so many questions that he is more than willing to find answers to.

“Shit, there you guys are!“

The moment is broken when Seokmin erupts from a passage hidden by shelves next to them, causing Seungkwan to startle and cuss at his friend while Vernon merely greets him with a simple ’oh hey’. The taller man has a paper bag filled to the brim with shirts and what seems to be a toy cast, wearing a wild look in his eyes that now rest upon the appearance of his friends.

“You guys look snazzy, what have you been up to?“

As the feather boa has slipped from Vernon’s shoulder, Seungkwan flips it around himself again and says with regained confidence: “We’re joining the Spice Girls, you may join if you want,“ and Vernon adds: “Filling in for Posh Spice if you will,“ which makes the shorter giggle while Seokmin pouts about having to prepare his musical debut instead of getting the chance to join the greatest girl group that ever graced Europe in the 2000’s.

“Who’s your favourite in the band?“ Seungkwan asks when the trio leaves the shop and slowly starts to exit the bustling areas of downtown Seoul that are starting to fill up with the promise of a lavish nightlife. The flashy outfits have been left behind, alongside with the awkward atmosphere that had set in when the eldest busted into their… well. Moment?

“I, as per usual, have to say Ginger Spice, she’s fun and she looks great,“ Seokmin answers decisively, which prompts an indignant “I can’t believe you“ from his fellow student, who turns around to Vernon expectantly.

“Hmm, I don’t know, I don’t really check up on them that much,“ he offers as a reply, but none of the performance majors are willing to accept his answer.

“Come on Vernon, this is really important,“ Seungkwan says. “We’ve been having this discussion for ages now and no one in our department seems to have educated themselves on this topic so they can’t solve this for us.“

“I’d like to say that he is exaggerating,“ Seokmin adds, “but he’s been bothering me with it for so long that I need this argument to end in my favour.“

Vernon looks at his friends, desperately digging around in his memories for the names he knows he heard his mom drop before.

“Well, from what I can remember, Mel B was pretty cool?“

Seokmin shouts out a desperate “Noooooooo“, which only gets ignored because there are louder people on the streets at this time of nearly night, while Seungkwan hollers “And it’s a win for Scary Spice!“, underlined with fist pumps into the air.

“Thank you for the very satisfactory insight into your tastes,“ he directs at Vernon with a perfectly blithe grin.

“My pleasure,“ he simply retorts, blending out Seokmin’s fake gagging noises next to them to smile honestly at Seungkwan.

“It’s really a shame you can’t stay to come into the pub with us because you start your day at five in the morning tomorrow,“ the eldest loudly interrupts as he pushes in between the younger pair.

“That’s some dedication,“ Seungkwan whistles, and then taps Vernon on the shoulder when they come to a stop at the bus station to send the youngest home. “Really a shame though.“

In the orange light of the street lamps, illuminated by the blinking lights of the advertisements on the buildings and the decorative garlands around them, Seungkwan is unmissable as the brightest beacon among them, standing on the side of the road. It might just be caused by the turns his day has taken, ignited by the fact that he is lightheaded from the taste of freedom he experienced while spending these hours in the full Seoul streets, but Vernon feels sure that if he were to lean against the shorter this instant, Seungkwan would push him back up with immeasurable force. Nothing in the world can knock him down, his posture expresses that clearly, and Vernon feels invigorated by his confidence.

Seokmin points at the bus to their apartment coming closer, and gives Vernon a firm hug

before he can get on the bus.

“As annoyingly flirty as you guys were being, I really wish you could stay out with us,“ he tells his friend quietly, to which Vernon can only smile softly.

“Don’t worry, I doubt this was our only chance to hang out,“ he replies.

Over Seokmin’s shoulder, he holds Seungkwan’s look until he steps unto the bus and gives the remaining two a short wave goodbye. With the way he stares at him intently, it is more than clear that they have not seen each other for the last time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you enjoyed! as always, feel free to leave a comment and give me some pointers if you like, thank you for reading and see you next time!


	3. Bruckner Defeated by the Pumpkin King

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have a smaller chapter with sexual tension left and right, I hope you enjoy!

_“Jack, please, I’m only an elected official here, I can’t make decisions by myself!“_

Vernon shuts the door behind him and sets his bags down with a huff. Who knew cans of coconut milk, curry paste and fermented beans would be so heavy.

_“Jack! Answer me - Yaaaaaaaaargh!“_

“Yaaaaargh,“ comes simultaneously to Halloween Town’s mayor’s complaint from the next room over.

“Are you watching it again?“ Vernon asks as he trots into the kitchen to put all of his roommate’s requested groceries on the counter.

“Hmm,“ Seokmin replies very quietly. When Vernon joins his roommate in the living room he can see that his faint response was mainly caused by the handful of popcorn Seokmin is chewing on right now. As he sees how Vernon is looking at the screen where the mayor further complains, he chews faster and swallows his snack with a cough.

“You want me to pause it so we can watch it together? I can heat up the rest of yesterday’s chilli when you take your bath so we can eat it during the movie.“

Vernon sighs. That chilli is GOOD, and it somehow tastes even better when it’s the next day’s leftovers, plus last time Seokmin watched The Nightmare Before Christmas (so… two days ago) Vernon had missed near all of it because he had an impromptu overtime at work. But he kind of has to take care of his gear and put his good tights to the wash before next Monday because the costuming department is going to make checks on their inventory and he can’t show up with his old training slippers nearly falling apart.

Seokmin is looking at him expectantly.

It _is_ only Thursday. He has plenty of time to look over his stuff. And he really needs to relax after the rough week behind him.

“Okay yeah, give me twenty minutes.“

*

Vernon actually takes nearly half an hour in the bathroom before he joins Seokmin in front of the television. He feels sore all over, which has already become his usual state ages ago, but this time it’s more specific pain. One of his co-dancers had been sick at practice and he had to fill in his role so the dance partner could keep up her own training, but it had been a while since Vernon last had to lift girls, so now his shoulder hurts _slightly_ more than usual. Good thing his roommate is well accustomed to the sticky-hot-patches-routine.

“You good?“, Seokmin asks when Vernon slides his hoody back over his torso and rolls his shoulders with a groan. “I thought you started working out again so you were prepared for a routine with that one guy in your group, how come you got hurt?“

The dancer carefully sinks back into the couch with his bowl of chilli and turns on the movie that Seokmin has rewinded for him.

“I’m more used to Chan’s weight and I went ahead and nearly threw Bora into the ceiling because I forgot to adjust my technique,“ he explains himself. “Good thing she’s more professional than me though because that duet recital is next week and if I had ruined it for her, Jeonghan and Madame Seo would have banned me from the parquet for a month at least.“

Seokmin giggles next to him at the image the younger just painted, then pauses so the two of them can simultaneously say “Nice work, Bone Daddy“.

“Chan is so tiny tho, isn’t he super light himself?“

“Compared to girls even smaller with zero fat on their bodies? It’s a noticeable difference,“ Vernon retorts. He has to stop talking because the spoonful of chilli he just shoved into his mouth threatens to scald its insides so he has to breathe and inhale around it like a backwards dragon. Of course Seokmin soon has to do the same when he chokes on his own food while laughing at Vernon. That’s dinner in their living arrangement for you: mostly calm eating until one of them swallows wrong and gets poked fun at by the other. The younger still has enough mercy to pat Seokmin on the back so he doesn’t die before they finish their food in a momentary truce.

“How was work today?“ Vernon asks later while his hyung massages his shoulder. Jack Skellington is talking over Sally and trying on his white beard on the tv screen. “First full rehearsal was today, right?“

Seokmin’s eyes light up. “Man it was amazing,“ he gushes. „Everybody was so professional and super great guidance, and the director praised me so often, it was crazy how nice she was to me.“

“Deserved,“ Vernon replies, “You’re by far the most talented singer I hang out with.“

Seokmin laughs earnestly, even if he can’t hide his blush at the compliment.

“You hang out with Seungkwan, too, and he’s amazing too!“ he replies, to which Vernon gives a chuckle and shrugs.

“I haven’t heard him sing yet, so I can confidently say that you sound better, especially in the shower,“ he replies.

“Now that sounds wrong,“ Seokmin exclaims, causing the younger to burst out laughing.

“ _My_ _worms_!“ Oogie Boogie laments in his gambling cave of horrors while the two friends nearly fall off the couch.

*

The chance to hear Seungkwan sing comes soon enough. In fact, right the next day.

When Vernon comes back from evening training, the blonde comes out of their kitchen holding the steaming kettle, flushing red immediately when he interrupts his belting to a girl group song that isn’t even playing.

“I made tea but I forgot to add water“, he tells Vernon in lieu of a proper greeting, then adds a little wave with both hands, causing the hot water in the kettle to splash around menacingly. “Hi.“

“Hi,“ Vernon replies with a smile, putting on his slippers to move into the bathroom. “Did you come with Seokmin?“

It’s not even the first time Seungkwan hangs out at their place since their trip to the seoulite highlife. Monday for example he’d come over after a doctor’s appointment to kill a few hours before he and Seokmin had to go to a choir event together, and on Wednesday Vernon had received a text from his roommate asking where his sister’s photo album was so he could show Seungkwan a very specific picture of Seokmin wearing Vernon’s tights and leotard with the dancer losing it in the background. It was very clear that Vernon would see Seungkwan more often now, but he wasn’t unhappy with that in the slightest. They got along well and the three of them always had a good time together, and Vernon just generally liked those moments when Seungkwan would look at him in the middle of a conversation and stutter around a smile when he noticed him looking back.

“I actually broke into the place when Seokmin was on the toilet, he doesn’t even know I’m here,“ Seungkwan replies and fills his mug on the coffee table.

“I do know, and you better delete the door’s passcode!“ the eldest shouts from his bedroom.

“Why can’t he keep it tho?“ Vernon calls back, causing the blonde next to him to choke on his tea.

“I don’t trust him with it,“ Seokmin answers, to which Seungkwan says “I mean, that’s fair enough, I wouldn’t trust myself with it either if I had constant possible access to your couch, and my roommates really annoy me.“

“That bad?“ Vernon asks, and the shorter sighs deeply while he follows Vernon to his room where the dancer puts away his training bag to grab a change of clothes instead, chosing the Stoney record from his shelf in passing.

“It’s the _other_ one this time, but luckily no boys are involved. She’s still making a whole exhausting drama over not being able to do any chores in the house because ’her marketing courses are just so time consuming’ when I literally watched her drop out of those, so now she makes up a bunch of other excuses instead of just telling us what the actual problem is,“ Seungkwan starts his rant, encouraged by a soft hum from Vernon. When he goes into bathroom to prepare his bath, the older simply sits down on the toilet lid and continues talking, sipping from his tea while Vernon sets the b-side of the LP onto his record player and turns on the tap of the bathtub. The conversation soon deviates from Seungkwan’s laments to the comparison of neighbours, to which Vernon can add his fair share of stories about the middle aged man that apparently lives exactly above them and regularly tries to unlock their door at four in the morning when he comes back from the pub.

When the dancer is about to decide if he should just take his shirt off without care of the blonde’s presence as the tub is nearly filled, Seungkwan ends their conversation himself and lets Vernon take his bath alone.

As the last song on the record fades out, Vernon finds his friends sitting in the living room with Chinese take out on the table, discussing the singing techniques of other members of their choir and their classes while Hocus Pocus plays on the tv screen.

“I got us food,“ Seokmin shouts without looking at Vernon, but Seungkwan turns around to flash a bright smile at Vernon that unexpectedly hits him. If he wasn’t still feeling hot from the bath, he is sure he would blush now, but Seungkwan doesn’t notice and turns back to Seokmin while Vernon takes a deep breath. The blonde definitely feels comfortable in their home, and Vernon has no trouble admitting he likes seeing him that way.

*

“I… might… die if we keep this up,“ Jeonghan gasps.

“Hyung, you were the one who said we needed to work on our bodies more! I don’t suffer because I want to,“ Chan retorts, stumbling to his locker to pull out his water bottle.

“Woah, this low motivation to commitment is gonna cost you your leading position when I snitch you out to Madame- hello what the fuck??“

Some men turn around to look at Jeonghan who is kneeling on the floor and shooting daggers at Vernon who can barely stop himself from giggling. Chan on the other hand laughs so hard that he nearly joins his sunbae on the ground, but he quickly stops himself with a grimace and leans on his thighs.

“Asshole, why did you push me over?“

Jeonghan expresses his anger at Vernon with a weak punch to his shin, but his knuckles are so damn sharp that the younger still jumps back with a whine.

“And why are you still so okay! We pushed the exact same weights, I don’t understand you and your weird slim buff body,“ Jeonghan continues.

“He’s right,“ Chan says, finally breathing regularly again. “You’re way to good at this for the way your arms disappear in you clothes.“

“You guys are exaggerating, I just know how to pace myself and to not put on more weight than I am prepared for,“ Vernon replies. “And I didn’t _push you over_ , you just kinda fell when I poked your arm, hyung.“

“Which proves my point. You’ve got superstrength, there’s no other explanation. I’m dying.“

Jeonghan is laying in starfish position on the ground while Chan is getting changed right next to him without any care, yelping when he accidentally pushes his gym bag from the bench and narrowly misses the eldest’s face.

While the two of them fuss, Vernon stretches one last time before taking his own backpack out of his locker. They all go to the gym together once a week, after practice, but it’s true that he has his own home workout routine, albeit a rather short one that mostly blends in with his daily yoga stretching. As a ballet dancer, all he can really train in his bedroom is his core strength, while he spends most of his time in the gym on the treadmill to keep his endurance and stamina in shape. However, doing jump ropes and the occasional 500 meters on the rowers for his legs and arms is also necessary if he wants to be able to keep his place in the studio, even though the toll it takes on his muscles is horrendous.

When he lets out a long sigh, Jeonghan suddenly appears next to him and claps down his hand on Vernon’s back, happily exclaiming “So it _did_ affect you! You suffer, too!“

“Ow, of course I do, but in silence!“

“This feels like a personal attack, Chan is this a personal attack?“

“For legal reasons I am not answering that.“

“Oh come on, I don’t whine that much!“

Vernon grins. Out of the three of them, he maybe has the most raw strength, but he is in no way as stable and flexible as Jeonghan, and his stamina pales in comparison to the hours Chan can put into his practice and choreographies. His own jumps are high for a dancer in general, but the younger one’s are extraordinary taking his age and height into account, and Vernon’s grands jetés are never going to be as straight as Jeonghan’s, even if they are longer. However, working together like they do helps him feel comfortable in the studio and eases the brutal rivalry he had faced when he had first restarted ballet. Of course, they are still competitors for the leading roles in the biggest productions. But Vernon is more than honest when he says that he is happy for his friends when they succeed. In some way, he cheers for them more than he hopes to be cheered on himself. Their talents deserve the most, after all.

Vernon looks at the time. He promised to help Seokmin out with a presentation, and if he manages to catch the next bus he’ll be home early enough to take care of his sore muscles before his roommate comes back. However, while he gathers his things to head to the bus stop, his phone chimes with a notification from his friend.

“It’s already getting dark so early,“ Chan complains as the three step outside of the gym, and Vernon looks up from his screen just in time to see the street lamps turn on one by one.

“Why, are you scared?“, Jeonghan teases the youngest. “These are perfect conditions for some trick-or-treating though, I always go with my nieces,“ he adds after cackling about Chan’s pouting.

“That’s cool, I haven’t gone in ages,“ Vernon replies, and Chan announces: “I only eat the candy I bought for myself like a self respecting person, who knows what those ahjummas try to feed you.“

“You told me you were having a club tour with your friends, how is that safer,“ Vernon argues.

“Well _I_ am also getting properly wasted after I’ve put three sugar-crazed five year olds to bed, no way this is gonna be the end of my day. Seungcheol owes me a bunch of drinks anyways so we’re going to be busy in Itaewon. Maybe we’ll see each other there, Chan!“

“God, I hope not,“ the youngest replies. “You’re scary when you’re drunk, hyung.“

“Scary hot!“, Jeonghan shouts. They have reached the bus stop now, and fair enough, Vernon’s bus is already visible at the corner of the block.

“And do you have any plans for Halloween?“ Chan asks him.

With a smile on his face, Vernon just waves his illuminated phone where Seokmin’s chat is still open.

“Apparently, I do now.“

*

“Oh, so you invited Vernon, too? That’s amazing, we’re gonna have the time of our lives,. Music department is full of rich snobs but the alcohol they buy humbles them a great deal.“

Four days later, Seungkwan is laying sprawled on the sofa, sheet music piled on his torso, while Seokmin is scribbling notes into a book and asking for technical pointers.

“You literally wanted me to ask him,“ Seokmin mumbles. “What was our harmony before the last canon in Os Justi again? It always fucks me up.“

Seungkwan bolts upright immediately and starts the part for the older to join in. They only sing for about six seconds before Seokmin interrupts them with a quick “Okay got it“ and frantically jots down annotations next to the lyrics.

“This assignment is so weird, I love it,“ Seungkwan says, regaining his horizontal position.

“You also don’t have to deal with three different vocal positions over the course of one week.“

“I also took care of my basic technique when I was a freshman and didn’t run around campus looking to hook up with art majors so now I don’t have troubles transposing keys.“

Vernon has been observing this for nearly an hour now. He was able to leave work early because his boss had a surprise to plan for his wedding anniversary, and when Seokmin came home from uni with Seungkwan and sat down in the living room as to not annoy the neighbour next to his own bedroom, Vernon had just decided to join them with his switch to finally continue playing Breath Of The Wild. It turned out, though, that Seungkwan was a very skilled multitasker, which allowed him to talk with Vernon while doing his homework and singing a plethora of different songs with Seokmin like it was his easiest feat. In this hour, Vernon has found out that Bach was one of the most hated composers among their class because he was “incredibly overplayed and repetitive just to show off the same bombastic run in seven different concerti“, and while Seungkwan agreed with Vernon that Adventure Time was one of the best cartoons ever created, he actually preferred Gravity Falls. Still, both of them are on the same page that Marceline is cooler than Marshall Lee, but Prince Gumball’s design is definitely superior to the original version (“He’s a pink boy, gotta love that,“ Vernon had said, soliciting a groan from Seokmin because could he get any more obvious? When Seungkwan is wearing a soft pink hoodie as they are speaking??)

Eventually, Vernon is sent to his room so the two students don’t have to spend three more unnecessary hours on their work. He can still hear his friends bicker though. And sing.

Seokmin was right - Seungkwan is an incredible singer. Vernon has heard him sing along and occasionally belt to whatever played on the radio the last time he saw him, which is mainly a show of power because his voice is really _something_. However, his tone becomes so much more refined and piercing with how clear it rings when he sings their pieces for school. It is clear that Seungkwan works a lot on his abilities, and whichever way he uses his vocals chords, the younger can only sit back and listen in amazement.

Right now though he is getting too distracted, so Vernon turns on his own music to finally let Link climb this cliff he has been standing in front of for nearly 20 minutes. He actually comes pretty far, and only gets interrupted when his phones announces a text on his bed.

He barely notices that it has already become dark outside when he sees that Wonwoo messaged him. It’s a picture of Kimchi Jjigae wearing a little cape with a simple ghost emoji as caption, soon followed by a very blurry foto in which Vernon can faintly recognise Wonwoo himself and an orange stripe escaping the frame.

**Jeon Wonwoo**

The modelling career is definitely lost on Napoleon

Vernon chuckles. Seokmin is notifying him in a different text that he is making dinner soon, so he sets his console aside to get into more comfortable clothes while singing along to Willow Smith and replying to Wonwoo’s text.

**vernon**

maybe more into surrealism?

kimchi jjigae looks terrifyingly cute tho

**Jeon Wonwoo**

I made Napoleon wear antennas but she didn’t like them :-(

Got offended by the reminder that her reign isn’t universal

Another picture is sent, this time showing Earl Grey holding a big plastic spider between her little fangs, which Vernon coos at in adoration. The picture was obviously taken in selfie mode, as part of Wonwoo’s face peeking into the camera, showing his black hair falling over his forehead in a soft mess. Vernon notices that the older is wearing glasses, which he has not seen him do since high school, and his face looks more relaxed this way, even if he is still wearing his dark eye pencil. He wonders just how bad his eyesight his, and if his unapproachable aura is really just caused by his blindness forcing him to squint all the time.

**vernon**

what is the earl’s plan to get rid of house pests?

**Jeon Wonwoo**

Sadly to puke into the bathroom after she eats them

She put a dead moth on my pillow the other day, it was pretty but dead :-(

While Vernon takes off his button-up shirt to throw over a softer hoody, the playlist shifts to Amy Winehouse. He’s still giggling quietly about how Wonwoo uses noses in his emojis when the door swings open and Seungkwan steps into his room, coming to a stop when he realises Vernon’s half undressed state.

“Uuuh, sorry,“ he stutters and just watches as Vernon pulls his hoody all the way down hurriedly.

“Are we eating?“ Vernon asks quickly, reaching for his phone to turn off the music. Wonwoo sent more cat pictures, he’s going to look at them later.

“Wh- Yeah, that’s why I came in,“ Seungkwan replies.

 _“Masculine within you spin a spell, I think you’d wear me well,“_ Amy decides to sing in that exact instant, causing Vernon to take a sharp breath at the suggestiveness.

When he looks up, he can see that the lyrics don’t seem to have been lost on the blonde either. With wide eyes he rips his gaze away from the dancer, furiously blushing and biting at his lower lip.

“I keep coming in at the worst moment’s, don’t I?“ he says, sounding slightly out of breath while the song keeps serenading the magic of sexual tension. Vernon is not above it to blush a bit himself.

He doesn’t really mind, honestly. These awkward situations they tangle themselves in, that is. Seungkwan is cute when he acts flustered like that, so he quietly replies: “Depends on how you look at it.“

He finally turns the music off, and all that is left is to observe as the blonde reacts.

*

Something crashes. Like, really loudly, accompanied by some helpless noises and some “oops“es and “hold on“s.

“Soonyoung I swear to fucking god, touch one more thing in my apartment and I will END you!“

Wonwoo takes a quick peek into Jihoon’s bedroom, where he finds Soonyoung fixing the mess he created with a sheepish grin, and joins the youngest in their trio where he is lacing his boots in front of the door.

“What was it,“ he sighs, not even a question, as he gives an especially hard tug at the shoelace.

“Your keyboard.“

“My- sorry, my _what_??“, Jihoon roars and bolts upright, already tugging at his shoe to most likely throw it at Soonyoung.

“Whatever he told you, please don’t kill me!“ the accused frantically shouts back. “It was just the thing your piano is on, nothing broke!“

Jihoon is fuming, so Wonwoo assures him that nothing did, indeed, break, and that his room is just a bit messier now than it was before. The shorter is still visibly annoyed, so he calls out for Soonyoung to hurry up or they’ll leave without him.

“You took too long in the bathroom, it’s entirely your fault,“ Soonyoung pouts when he finally joins them in the entrance.

“It takes time to look this rocking sexy,“ Wonwoo replies, barely able to stifle his laugh as Jihoon groans next to him when he sees their friend’s getup.

“You are so lucky Wonwoo agreed to come with us, no begging in the world would have gotten me to take you with to this party,“ he hisses as Soonyoung slips into his shoes and throws over a blazer with tiger print.

“Don’t sweat it too much,“ Wonwoo says. “Everybody is going to be drunk off their asses in an hour and won’t even care about what any of us is wearing.“

“I’m gonna need to get drunker, too,“ Jihoon mumbles, and Soonyoung points at Wonwoo who is currently downing the last of his whiskey.

“You could have just pregamed, like anyone would do on Halloween,“ he says, unlocking the door to skip outside. “Fuck is it cold!“

The three of them are all pretty squiffy, and even Jihoon drank his fair share, but his alcohol tolerance is remarkably higher than Soonyoung’s, who has nearly reached the dangerous stage of “I need to hug Wonwoo’s arm at all times or the world will fall apart“.

Wonwoo himself did not drink as much yet, because getting a sharp eye with liquid eyeliner is already hard enough sober, and he generally goes for the simplest look there is, if he ever even applies it. Tonight though he put more time into his makeup, taking care of properly blending his eyeshadow and adding a few more extra lines than usual on his lower lid. He also styled his hair back with some gel, which he usually never bothers to do, and added the spikier piercings he never wears (especially not now that he lives with cats who are just _fascinated_ by his piercings and try as hard as they can to get any hold of them). When Jihoon had looked at him, he had described him as an “even hotter James Dean, but way way darker“. It was probably just the leather jacket and the fact that you could for once see Wonwoo’s forehead that created this association, but he still gave his friend credit for trying.

“No one is going to realise who you are supposed to be, by the way,“ he tells Jihoon while they are walking to some rich person’s place from the bus stop they just got out at.

“I keep telling you, Wonwoo, everybody knows Django Unchained! Why would they not know the main character!“

“You are Asian!“ Soonyoung offers as a flaw in his friend’s costume, avoiding a pole on the sidewalk and quickly jumping back with a laugh when a car passes by and honks.

“At least I didn’t draw cat whiskers on my face and threw on orange pants,“ the smaller retorts, to which Soonyoung exclaims “It’s _tiger_ whiskers! Respect the drip, Jihoon!“

“Is this it?“ Wonwoo interrupts his friends, coming to a halt in front of an open gate which is decorated with fake spiderwebs and glowing ghosts all over.

“Oh yeah, seems to be,“ Jihoon answers after checking his phone. “God damn, can’t wait to have a proper conversation with Chanyeol-sunbae tonight, this guy pitched an idea to me last week and then completely dipped.“

“Why would you talk about work at a party, I bet this dude is already hammered,“ Soonyoung says, before he stops himself to gasp at the house in front of them and shout “This is a whole ass mansion, what the hell!“

Jihoon sighs.

“Put your fangs in, pretty boy,“ he tells Wonwoo. “You’re gonna need them.“

*

Vampires are hot. That is universally known. So it is no surprise that a good amount of girls and, luckily, some guys have chatted him up by the time Wonwoo has to take the fake teeth out, barely forty minutes after they arrived. Everybody thinks he’s smouldering sexily when he’s just trying to not lose his friends in the dim light, and one grin reveals his pointy pearly whites to make all surrounding attendants swoon. The party loves him.

Wonwoo was actually quite surprised to see how serious the dressing up part is being taken. When Jihoon had told him there was a dress code, he’d just taken the opportunity to put on more accessories than usual, and Soonyoung had cheered at the idea in his well known enthusiasm, which was to be expected. However, almost everyone here is wearing some sort of costume, some even pretty elaborate. Lots of corpse brides, witches and classic vampires, a whole group even coordinated themselves as the Justice League, and some guy who offered him a cupcake soon after he had entered he house was even wearing green face paint to a yellow suit.

The event itself is… something. Wonwoo feels slightly out of place, since most people here are from the music department, but there is so much food and alcohol provided that he starts thinking the host actually counted on filling up all of the Free Arts department. The drinks make it easier to talk to strangers, though, and even when Jihoon goes off to talk with a gigantic guy in a Spider-Man or maybe Deadpool costume (it really is pretty dark here), Wonwoo meets new people and can even feel some friendships bloom when he discusses the pros and cons of refusing to watch baseball games with your father a month before your birthday with two girls dressed up as Morticia and Gomez Addams. They really get him.

As of now, Wonwoo is really enjoying himself, and the music isn’t even half bad (but after all, he shouldn’t just assume everybody here has the same lacking taste as Jihoon). Of course, Soonyoung, sociable as ever, helped him out a lot with that by throwing compliments and cheers left and right. However, it’s been a while since he’s last seen him, so after he excuses himself to go to the toilet and grabs another badly mixed, but very red Daiquiri, he sets out to look for his friend.

Surprisingly enough, he finds him in well-known company.

“Holy shit, Wonwoo hyung!“ Seokmin in a sheet exclaims. “What the heck are you doing here!“

“Hold on, you know this guy?“ Soonyoung chimes in, a grin spread from ear to ear and two empty glasses in his hands. “Why didn’t you tell me, he’s been my best friend since, like, ten minutes! If I’d known sooner he could have been since at least a week!“

“Soonyoung, you know Seokmin, he’s friends with Mingyu,“ Wonwoo replies with a laugh and takes the glasses away from his friend and stacks them into each other so he doesn’t accidentally destroy them when he throws himself into Wonwoo’s arms with an elated giggle.

Seokmin laughs heartily, too, his bedsheet slowly slipping completely from his head, and claps his hands down on the older’s shoulders. There are a LOT of hands on his body right now.

“Hyung, you look so good! Vernon is gonna be pumped to see you!“

Wonwoo chokes. Soonyoung lets a loud cackle escape. Jihoon appears out of thin air and says “Vernon, huh?“ as deadpan as it gets.

“ _Vernon_ is here?“ Wonwoo finally manages to ask when his coughing fit ebbs to a mere raspy throat. His voice still breaks, which Jihoon immediately mocks with glee. God this is humiliating. At least Vernon wasn’t around yet to experience this.

“Yeah I am.“

Of course.

Jihoon is full on laughing at that, leaning against Soonyoung who just seems delighted by the general amusement and now latches on to the smaller instead.

“This is the best party of my life,“ Jihoon announces, and Wonwoo can just sigh and finally turn around.

“Hi!“

Vernon is beaming. He has one of those fake knives going through his head, paired with a vaguely ripped flannel shirt with a lot of dark stains on it, and his hair is messily pushed out of his face. His cheeks are flushed red from the heat and the alcohol, and his smile so wide that Wonwoo forget about any potential embarrassment and smiles back just as big.

“Hi,“ he replies, lifting one hand to wave, but stopping halfway because a wave seems unnecessary when they are standing merely two meters apart. Vernon grabs it in a handshake and laughs, though, so Wonwoo is saved from any awkward tension.

“He’s hot,“ a smaller guy next to Vernon blurts out with an expression of awe, to which Wonwoo just chuckles and uses his free hand to shoot him a finger gun, except it’s not so free since he’s still holding those glasses.

“Yeah! That’s Wonwoo hyung,“ Vernon replies, turning to the blonde.

“With the cats?“ he excitedly replies. He’s wearing a suit and sporting thick-rimmed, fake glasses, kind of like Detective Conan, and has a very pretty gleam of excitement in his eyes when he looks at Vernon and then Wonwoo.

“Yuup. How come you’re here?“

Somebody passes by real close, so Wonwoo staggers forward a bit to make way for them. Vernon’s hand shoots up to his shoulder to steady him, but drops it when he sees that Wonwoo is steady on his legs.

“I came here with Jihoon,“ he explains with a motion of his hand to his friends, “the one that’s not a tiger. He’s in the department, brought us along.“

Vernon’s friend gasps as he sees the shorter guy, who is currently trying to push Soonyoung off his back while conversing with Seokmin, and steps over to the three to ask Jihoon where he got his ridiculously oversized cowboy hat from. Soonyoung doesn’t let the smaller respond though because he shouts “Are you Key from the Sherlock video??“ and then wildly embraces the startled, but equally enthusiastic blonde.

“Wow, I didn’t think anybody would catch on to Seungkwan’s costume,“ Vernon says with a grin.

“Is he from here, too?“ Wonwoo asks. It doesn’t really make sense, he realises when he has already said it, but it doesn’t matter because Vernon turns back to him and pushes his hair back, tussling it ever so elegantly, even if the knife headband is in the way and now awkwardly stands on his head.

“Yeah! He’s friends with Seokmin, we’ve been together for- oh shit!“ Vernon giggles when the knife falls to the ground and he bends down to pick it up, while the contents of Wonwoo’s stomach suddenly slosh uncomfortably and something feels like it’s twisting up from the inside. He shoots a quick glance at the blonde, who is laughing hard with Soonyoung and Seokmin. He probably didn’t eat enough this evening, he thinks to himself.

“Anyways,“ Vernon continues as he stands straight again, the fake knife thing in his hands, which Wonwoo instinctively takes and places on the younger’s head again.

“Thanks - Anyways, we’ve been hanging out a lot lately, he’s cool, we’re good friends.“

“Oh. Yeah, cool,“ Wonwoo replies. “He looks fun.“

“He is,“ Vernon says a bit wistfully, and then he leans really close to Wonwoo’s face. It’s so sudden that he doesn’t even have time to recoil before he freezes up completely.

“Did you use red today?“

Wonwoo is completely still, just staring into Vernon’s face that is so, _so_ close. He could, if the light was better, count his eyelashes that seem so incredibly long, or, if his hands weren’t occupied by the glasses he took from Soonyoung, brush one of the curls on the younger’s forehead back into place.

“Hm?“ he just makes, because societal norms require you to reply to questions when they are posed instead of losing yourself in reveries, and Vernon’s eyes lock with his own.

Wonwoo finally startles back.

“Your makeup,“ the younger says, hands buried in his jeans pockets. “It’s not just black today.“

“Oh. Yeah.“ _Very astute, Wonwoo_. “Yeah, uh, I did a bit more today.“

Vernon smiles.

“It really cool.“ Then he points at the older’s neck. “The choker looks really good on you, too.“

God, Wonwoo could sink into the ground. He doesn’t even know if positively or negatively, he just knows that he feels way too weak right now.

“Thank you,“ he replies. “You look really good, too.“

The conversation ends at that. Seokmin, who is sharing his sheet with Soonyoung, calls Vernon over to introduce the two, and Seungkwan links their arms together with a relaxed laugh.

Jihoon is suddenly standing next to Wonwoo and nods over to Vernon.

“Need a drink?“

Wonwoo’s lips slip into a smile easily when he sees his friends laughs out loud at something Soonyoung said. He still sighs, though.

“God, I do.“

*

The next time Wonwoo sees Vernon, “Frankenstein“ by the Editors is blasting over the speakers, and he is dancing in the middle of the packed room, wearing a witch’s hat and jumping along to the chorus, shouting the lyrics with strangers that are joining to celebrate one night where nothing really matters because you can finally come out and be yourself without any worries.

He looks so free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again, heavy heavy seungkwan, but i hope you still enjoyed! drink responsibly <3
> 
> i created playlists for the fic! check them out if you like, one follows the [storyline](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/25Tte0nz2zUkYOnyVLwQA4?si=LAMkFMBcRuKqAxrHPrcSqQ) chronologically, and the more or less extensive playlists for [wonwoo](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0fPrPiXaWy6Nvn81FSbu1m?si=xsQrk5q3Q1Ou4gke799u8g) and [vernon](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7MVXiSh2W7uh9BZb8xiGGO?si=CBE_6jiqTASfz02-tQykMg)

**Author's Note:**

> hi so, this is my very first fanfic for ANY fandom, and the first time i have published my writing anywhere, so please give me pointers if you find mistakes or anything! I hope you enjoyed this and any chapter to come, whenever they may come.  
> this project is entirely prompted by a dream where i found a fic with this paring with this dynamic and i woke up before i found out who's who, i hope it amuses you somewhat.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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